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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

CBO: Supreme Court's ACA Ruling to Leave More People Uninsured, But Cost Less Money

If you are not living in a cave, you know that in late June the Supreme Court generally upheld the Affordable Care Act, but gave states the right to opt out of the ACA's Medicaid expansion. As explained in this Washington Post article, the Congressional Budget Office has now estimated that, in light of the Court's Medicaid ruling, about 3 million more people will remain uninsured in 2022, but that the federal budget will shrink by about $84 billion from now through 2022. (Of course, these estimates are based on predictions on which states will opt out of the Medicaid expansion and which states, if any, will delay their acceptance of the new Medicaid funds.)

In a separate report, the CBO reiterated its earlier finding that, overall, the Affordable Care Act reduces the deficit. As the Post puts it: "[T]he CBO said the Affordable Care Act would retain its powers of deficit reduction, a critical goal of the legislation during a time of record budget deficits. A Republican plan to repeal the initiative — which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases as well as cuts to Medicare and other health programs — would increase deficits by $109 billion during the next decade."

Read the CBO's full report projecting health insurance coverage and federal expenditures in light of the Supreme Court's decision. Go here to read all of the CBO's data on that topic. Go here to read about the CBO's budget estimates if the ACA is repealed along the lines proposed by Republicans.